Women’s March 2018

Women’s March 2018

Raising Voices That Will Never Be Silenced Again

www.WomensMarch.org | photos by Dawn Garcia

Like many, I am among the women who have felt silenced, swayed to “just play the game”, I’ve been passed up on a number of jobs told I was overqualified and exceeded their budget requirements only to find a less qualified male landed the gig for far more money than what I would have been paid. I know many women in Hollywood who are beyond talented: writers, editors, directors, actresses, varying crew who have fought tirelessly to do what they love only to be met with resistance – and these women have a strong work ethic and are highly experienced. The wage discrepancy finally brought to light in an undeniable, documented way as studios systems were hacked and truth was revealed. It’s not a complaint. It s a way of life women have become accustomed to because there was no clear way to change it. Until now …

The current social and political climate has taken our sense of helplessness and false sense of ease and turned it on its head. Last year when women decided we were tired of being silenced, launching the inaugural Women’s March, everything changed. A conversation began that polarized societal insufficiencies, bigotry, homophobia, racism, sexism, and xenophobia. The most prominent of them being sexism and racism. Throughout history, women of color and women on the whole have been treated as if we were sub-par human beings versus valued and equal members of society. As we felt the sting of a presidency fraught with ill-gotten mindsets and disregard for women on the whole, something else was happening.

May all of the women who have struggled before us, speak through us today!

My fellow women in film and entertainment began a movement that would make history. One afternoon, a tweet began with one simple hashtag that became the voice that would never be silenced again: #MeToo. For the first time in many of our lifetimes, women and men called out their sexual harassers, sexual predators, sexual deviants who used their power as a means of demeaning and demoralizing women and girls. And finally, we said NO MORE. And we meant it. And as the dominos of male power players fall with the volatility it deserves, we stand taller and prouder than ever before.

Yesterday we all stood together in Grand Park in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles while LAPD kept a close watch and a peaceful march told profound truths and brought a surge of empowerment and unity to women and girls everywhere.

Y’all are a bunch of upstanders – I learned what that meant from my 6 year-old recently. An upstander is someone who sees something unjust and wrong and stands up to do something and make it right. Today we’re not just standing up, we’re marching – and when you get a bunch of upstanders together that’s called a movement. This wave is going to turn tides like we’ve never seen before. Upstand for justice, liberty, equality, and empowerment.

– Connie Britton, Actress, Mother, Upstander

From Connie Britton’s speech to the power of Nicole Richie’s promise to use her influence to stand beside all women and help those who cannot speak out for themselves, six hundred thousand Angelenos came out in a show of solidarity and the results were that for a while, the world didn’t seem so distraught and was far less fragmented.

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of the Women’s March, we’ve created Together We Rise, a gorgeously designed full-color book offering an unprecedented, front-row seat to one of the most galvanizing movements in American history. Featuring exclusive interviews with Women’s March organizers, never-before-seen photographs, and essays by feminist activists, this book takes us back to January 21, 2017, an historic day when more than five million marchers of all ages and walks of life took to the streets.

Compiled by our team of Women’s March organizers, and in collaboration with the creative team at Condé Nast, Together We Rise is the complete chronicle of this remarkable uprising. For the first time, Women’s March organizers—including Bob Bland, Cassady Fendlay, Sarah Sophie Flicker, Janaye Ingram, Tamika Mallory, Paola Mendoza, Carmen Perez, and Linda Sarsour —tell their personal stories and reflect on their collective journey in an oral history written by Jamia Wilson, writer, activist and director of The Feminist Press.

Together We Rise interweaves stories with “Voices from the March”—recollections from real women who were there, across the world—plus exclusive images by top photographers, and a series of short, thought-provoking essays by esteemed writers, celebrities and artists such as Jill Soloway, America Ferrera, Roxane Gay, Ilana Glazer, Elaine Welteroth, and Jia Tolentino. An inspirational call to action that reminds us that together, ordinary people can make a difference.

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Journalist | Writer | Director | Latina | Mom.
"We are a collective people capable of art, desire, love and goodness. Live it!"
Dawn currently works in digital, print, and broadcast journalism and is a writer and director in television and film.

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